Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Polokwane City will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
1‑4 against Golden Arrows, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Polokwane City this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑4 Evidence Vilakazi left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Polokwane City training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kabelo Sekaledi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Whether it was the goalkeeper or the ten in front of him is the argument that will fill every conversation in town this week. 2 saves does not settle it either way.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 15 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Polokwane City will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Polokwane City this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Evidence Vilakazi to a room that had heard them before.
Nobody at Polokwane City will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Polokwane City will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Evidence Vilakazi to a room that had heard them before.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Monty Batlhabane has come out of that comparison in the side, and Polokwane City have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Elliot Seema falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Successful dribbles: 13. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Polokwane City will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Tlou Nkwe and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Successful dribbles: 16. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Evidence Vilakazi left the room before anybody could ask which.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Polokwane City will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Polokwane City can pretend not to have heard.
Tlou Nkwe and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The name of Sabelo Motsa has come up in conversations Polokwane City were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Evidence Vilakazi on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.